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Category Archives: Myths

A collection of Will-o’-the Wisp ghost stories revolving around an abandoned rail bed near St. Louis, Saskatchewan, Canada. A phenomenon that has inspired ghost stories, helped two high school students earn a gold medal in a Science Fair, and even earned its mark on a Canadian stamp.

The St. Louis Light

An unidentifiable light phenomenon is visible along a rail bed north of St. Louis where the tracks have long been removed. The light is said to begin as a glow starting on one side of the rail bed that increases in brightness as it moves to the center of the rail bed. A common description by eyewitnesses of the level of intensity of brightness has been compared to the brightness of a star. The length of time of the phantom light lasting varies from a few seconds to roughly an hour. In some accounts the phantom light is followed by a deep red light.

What is this phantom light?

Story #1

Way back when the rails ran past St. Louis, a railroad worker was on a routine rail inspection. While on his daily work routine consisting of inspecting the rails, moving from one stretch of rail to the next on his iron coal fed work horse, and of course not to mention his routine visits of his ol’ pocket companion the flask, the inebriated worker stopped at a stretch of rail just north of St. Louis. When getting out of his overworked iron horse he inadvertently neglected to make sure the brake was applied. The worker was on the ground behind the engine checking the rail with his head aligned parallel to the rail facing away from his oncoming death. While lining up his sights on the rail, the engine slowly started to roll in reverse and unhurriedly severed his head.

To this day…

Some say, the phantom light is the rail worker holding out his stretched arm clinching to his lantern in front of him looking for his lost head. “Oooo…”

Story #2

A long time ago, some time between World War I and World War II, a train passing by St. Louis had to come to a complete stop just north of St. Louis due to snow covering the tracks. Two men decided to exploit the situation and rob the train. At some point during the heist the thieves killed the hapless conductor and over a dispute over the loot one of the thieves killed his partner. Both bodies were buried under the snow and were not discovered until later in the spring when the snow melted away.

To this day…

Some say, the phantom light is the spirits of the conductor and the thief wandering the rail bed, lost for eternity. “Oooo…”

Another Story

Back in the days when it was common to see the sights of trains permeating the skies with their black bellowed smoke clouds grinding and chugging away down the rails a passenger train derailed just north of St. Louis. The passenger cars were illuminated with oil lanterns. When the train derailed, the lit lanterns fell and immediately endoused the wooden passenger cars into flames. All passengers died in a fiery hell.

To this day…

Some say, the phantom light is the front of the train and the tailing red light is coming from the rear of the caboose transporting the lost souls to a destination that they will never arrive to. “Oooo..”

The Scientific Explanation

Two 12th graders in Saskatchewan Canada conducted an experiment for a science fair project on the St. Louis Phantom Lights starting in the fall of 2001 and ending in winter 2002. After doing several experiments to figure out this unknown light source and trying to recreate the phantom light they succeeded. The conclusion to their theory of the explanation behind the ghostly lights suggests that it is an optical phenomenon called diffraction. Diffraction is the process by which a small beam of light from a distance is spread out through a narrow passage, such as gaps between trees, and create the appearance that the light source is closer to the observer. Their project received the gold medal.

Another Tidbit

In 2004, Canada Post debuted their “spooky tales” stamp collection. 1 of the 5 featured stamps was dedicated to the St. Louis Ghost Train.

Are the Children actually singing and playing a game about pestilence and death,or is it folklore evolving about folklore?

The Game

The singing play game involves a group of children holding hands to form a circle, dancing around singing, “Ring Around the Rosies”. The lyrics have many variations and have also developed over time.

This is the version that I remember as a child:

Ring around the rosies

Pocket full of posies

Ashes…Ashes…

We all fall down

When the children finish singing the last line, “we all fall down”, the children fall to the ground. The last child to hit the ground ends up in the center of the circle and the game continues with another round of the lyrics.

The most notorious hidden meaning in the nursery singing game is about the Black Plague also known as the bubonic plague originating from Central Asia and spreading throughout Europe in the late Middle Ages starting around 1340 and lasting ‘til 1400.

Ring around the rosies: represents the red sores that are a common symptom

Pocket full of posies: the posy flower was used to help relieve the pain of the sores

Ashes…Ashes… : It was common practice to cremate the infected bodies and homes

We all fall down : A third of the Western European population died from the bubonic plague

Plague Buboes

Another Common Version

Ring a ring a roses

A pocket full of posies

A-tishoo! A-tishoo!

We all fall down

This version of the song is supposedly referencing the plague that occurred in London 1665. A-tishoo! A-tishoo!, is claimed to be representing the sound one makes when sneezing, that or… London depleted their tissue supply in 1665 and the people were demanding more tissue. “A-tissue! A-tissue!”. That last statement about tissue was completely 100% made-up and it seemed funny at the time so I’m standing by it.

Anyways…

The first printed version of “Ring around the Rosy” was published in 1881 in Kate Greenaway’s Mother Goose Old Nursery Rhymes.

I have a question

If there were groups of children gathering in the streets of Europe holding hands dancing and singing about pestilence and death for roughly over 500 years why didn’t anyone report it or at least document it?

MetaFolklore

Folklife Today, has classified folklore that is about folklore as metafolklore. It is typically untrue but some might have some small truths to them. The metafolklore about the game in question is untrue. The lyrics of any version of “ring around the rosy” have no real meaning or known origin. As for the origins of the game involving the nursery rhyme, Folklorist Philip Hiscock suggested:

“The more likely explanation is to be found in the religious ban on dancing among many Protestants in the nineteenth century, in Britain as well as here in North America. Adolescents found a way around the dancing ban with what was called in the United States the “play-party.” Play-parties consisted of ring games which differed from square dances only in their name and their lack of musical accompaniment. They were hugely popular, and younger children got into the act, too.” (Snopes)

Final Thoughts…

Ring around the rosy is a children’s game with many variations from around the world and modern versions have developed and are currently still being played as a sing play game by our little ones today. It is very human of us in wanting to believe in hidden meanings behind the games, stories, movies, or other forms of entertainment. The older the secret of the hidden meanings the better, whether it’s true or not, doesn’t matter. It creates an added entertainment value to the old original piece of folklore. As long as the beliefs in these hidden secret meanings are maintained the value of the entertainment will hold its value.

Some other interesting hidden meanings…

According to Urban Dictionary, a ring around the rosy is a service that one will provide with their tongue after doing some butt stuff with a partner. As for those gentleman who have experienced having intercourse with a lady who was having her menstrual cycle, if you discovered that you had a red ring around your penis after taking off the condom, that… is a ring around your rosy dude.

A Hawaiian folk legend about sexism, chauvinism, and a goddess with a flying yoni.

Pele

Pelehonuamea

According to ancient Hawaiian legend Pelehonuamea, commonly referred as Pele, was 1 of 6 daughters and 7 sons of Haumea (the Earth goddess) and Kane Milohai (the creator of the sky, earth, and the heavens. Pele is the goddess of fire and volcanoes. She came to the Hawaiian islands after being exiled from Tahiti because of her hot flaming temper. It is believed that she made Halema’uma’u Volcano her home. Pele is referred to as “She who shapes the sacred land”.

Stories over time have developed of Pele traveling throughout the islands appearing as a beautiful young or old woman sometimes accompanied by a white dog. When humans encounter her she will make small requests. If the person refuses to accommodate her needs they will face her wrath. Pele was reported by tourists of photo bombing her face in their vacation pictures of lava lakes.

Halema’uma’u Valcano, March 2013

Tourist beware, when visiting the Hawaiian Islands it is forbidden to remove a lava rock from the islands. Lava is a sacred piece of the fire goddess. If you remove a piece bad luck will fall upon you. Also when visiting Halema’uma’u, around the edges of the caldera, grow ohelo berries. It is considered offensive to eat these berries before offering them or at least asking for permission from the goddess. Remember, a fire goddess is not someone you want to offend, they tend to have a reputation of having explosive tempers.

Kapo

Kapo is a Hawaiian goddess of fertility, sorcery, and dark powers. She is believed to take on any shape that she pleases and has the ability of detaching her vagina from her body. It is also believed female mediums serving as a host to Kapo must cover their genitalia with a ti leaf. If they fail to do this, the mediums would be victims of having their vaginas ripped off.

Kamapua’a

Kamapua’a – The Pig God

Kamapua’a translates to pig child. Born on the island of Oahu through human parents he was known to be an adventurous and a mischievous character. Kamapua’a has the powers of turning his human form into a hog. Kamapua’a was a demigod that was only worshiped by commoners. In human form, Kamapua’a was described to be a very strong, attractive, and charismatic man. He had a reputation with the females in villages that he traveled through on his journeys.

There are many different variations to this story. According to one source, Kamapua’a falls in love with Pele but was quickly rejected by her calling him a “child of a pig”. With time, they fell in love but their short lived romance ended in a heated feud.

Feminism vs. Male Chauvinism

One Hawaiian legend tells of a situation where Kamapua’a was stalking Pele. After several rejections from Pele, Kamapua’a tried to force himself on her like a lusting animal. Somehow feeling something was wrong, Pele’s sister came to her aid. When Kapo arrived and saw Kamapua’a trying to rape Pele, Kapo pulled up her hula skirt, grabbed and ripped her own vagina off. She threw her heavily scented womanhood across Kamapua’a face enticing his lust away from Pele redirecting him like a dog fetching a flying stick hurling across the horizon. His pig instincts on overdrive caused Kamapua’a to run off of a cliff and land on his face. Some variations of the legend are saying that this magical vagina sprouted wings and flew about 200 km to the south-eastern point of O’ahu. The Kohe lele, another word for vagina, made an imprint on the ground after landing. The Hawaiian volcano crater is referred to as kohelepelepe, Hawaiian for fringed vagina.

Kohelepelepe aka Koko Head

Final Thoughts…

The story of Kapo and her flying vagina has many deeper meanings depending on how one perceives the telling of this story. Some people say that Kapo was an ancient feminist fighting against a male dominated culture. Kamapua’a, the pig god, coincidentally or intentionally played the role of a modern day reference to a “male chauvinist pig”. While reading about this legend, I’ll be honest, it lured me in the moment I saw the words magical flying vagina.References

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Could it be Bigfoot, evil spirits, aliens, serial killers, freaky acts of phenomenon, or the cruel side of Mother Nature herself. Let’s take a trip through the Alaskan Triangle!

If 33,000 miles of wilderness including 70 active volcanoes, 3 million lakes, 3,000 rivers, and an estimated 100,000 glaciers, blanketed with year round snow inhabited by untamed man eating beasts that could literally eat your face right off, is not enough for you outdoor adventure/survivalists types, then possibly an encounter with Bigfoot, evil spirits, aliens, or a run in with a local serial killer burying evidence in the woods might satisfy your adventure thrills to take a trip through the Alaskan Triangle.

Land of the Missing

In 2007, Alaska state troopers added 2,833 missing person notices just in that year alone. With over a population of 670,000 residents that 2007 statistic averages out to four in every 1,000 people who go missing. Many of these missing persons reports have been closed, however, Alaska also has the highest open missing persons alerts than any other state within the United States. The 2016 FBI Violent Crime Report stated that Alaska also has the highest violent crime rate per capita in the United States. Alaska also has become known to be the number one state, proportional to its population, that has had the most serial killings in the United States with a 15.65 serial killings per one million inhabitants.

Many that are still missing have disappeared within the boundaries of what is being referred to as the Alaskan Triangle. The Cities of Anchorage, Juneau, and up to the north coast of Barrow, form this mysterious vortex that is also a hotbed for paranormal and UFO phenomenon that some people are claiming are the culprits of those who are still lost in Alaska.

Thomas Hale Boggs Sr.

Hale Boggs

One of the most high profile missing persons that has vanished within the Alaskan Triangle in 1972 would be the House Majority Leader Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. He and his colleagues were on a flight, a twin engine Cessna 310, en route to a campaign fundraiser. On October 16, the plane disappeared somewhere between Anchorage and Juneau. After a 39 day search for the plane and passengers, with the aid of the US Coast Guard, Navy, Army, Air Force, and Civil Air Patrol, neither the wreckage of the plane nor the remains of those who were onboard were ever found. With Boggs involvement in the Warren Commission many conspiracy theories were born.

Vile Vortices

Vile vortices are geographical areas around the world that exhibit extreme electromagnetic anomalies and energy vortices, which are also called ley lines. The term vile vortices was coined by researcher and cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson. The most famous of these Vile vortices is the Bermuda Triangle. They also exist in the Algerian Megaliths to the south of Timbuktu, the Indus Valley in Pakistan, Hamakulia Volcano in Hawaii, the Devil’s Sea near Japan, and both the North and South poles. Stonehenge, The Moai monuments of Easter Island, and the Pyramids in Egypt, sit on vortexes and it is currently believed that these structures were intentionally built in these places for that specific reason.

These electromagnetic vortices create all sorts of weird phenomena. They are believed to affect humans in a wide variety of ways physically, mentally, and emotionally, causing auditory and visual hallucinations, giving people miraculous powers of healing, causing spurts of creativity and epiphanies. These vortices can also cause disorientation, confusion, and wreak havoc with electrical instrumentation.

Microbursts

On 26th of April 2016, the Science Channel broadcasted an episode of “What on Earth?”. Part of the segment claimed that the mystery behind the disappearances of ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle were due to natural meteorological phenomenon known as microbursts. Hexagonal clouds that can create up to 170 mph downward winds. These microbursts can be strong enough to force airplanes down from the air and flip ships over.

Shortly after the episode aired, the two scientists that were on the show talking about these microbursts stated that what they were talking about on the program was taken out of context. They stated that microbursts happen everywhere on the globe not just in the Bermuda Triangle. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/scientists-solve-bermuda-triangle/

Myths and Legends

Within many cultures around the globe, legends and myths have lived and flourished through time and serve many purposes in our lives. The Alaskan folklore is rich with terrifying creatures and share common characteristics with other horror pop culture beasts that roam within the dark forests of many people’s minds.

Qalupalik

A creature from Inuit legend that is described as being a human-like female with green skin, long hair, and very long fingernails. According to legend, she resides in the sea humming to entice children to come closer to the waters. If the unsuspecting child gets too close to the shore line, the Qalupalik snatches them from the waters and claims them to be her own for eternity, never to be seen again. Children are reminded by their parents and elders that if they are disobedient and wander too close to the shore that the Qalupalik will get them.

Tornits, aka The Alaska Bushman

Since the human migration crossing over the Bering Land Bridge, the story of the Tornits were created and are still being told today. The story begins with the Inuit tribe and the Tornits living peacefully in villages near each other and shared common hunting grounds. The Inuit people were well skilled at building kayaks that were very useful for fishing, hunting, and transportation. The Tornits were also great hunters themselves but lack the skills to master building kayaks like their friendly neighbors. One of the stories tells of a young Tornit that borrowed a Inuit’s kayak without permission and damaged the bottom of the boat. The young Inuit became very angry and stabbed the Tornit in the neck while the Tornit was asleep. Fear in the Tornit’s villages quickly ran rampant, causing the Tornits to quickly disappear into the Alaskan bush and rarely were ever seen again. Inuit hunters eventually started to disappear while on hunting expeditions. Later they would be found dead, their bodies mutilated and limbs torn off. Sightings of Alaskan Bushmen also referred to as Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti have been reported from all over the world and share similar characteristic with each other. If you are ever wandering in the woods and you see trees that have been uprooted and flipped upside down, just remember, trees don’t do that by themselves. It is a sign that you are in Bigfoot country.

Adlet

Adlet is commonly described and compared to the likes of the pop culture horror creatures known as werewolves. According to Inuit legend, Adlets originated from the offspring of a human female and a male dog. The woman gave birth to 10 children, half of them were dogs and the other half were Adlets.

Tizheruk

A snake-like sea creature that is believed to roam the Alaskan waters. They are commonly described as having a 7 foot-long head with a flipper tail and are typically 12 to 15 feet from head to flipper. It is believed that they snatch and eat people from docks and piers.

Mount Hayes and UFOs

If you saw the movie “Men Who Stare at Goats”, you might possibly be blown away if I were to tell you that the movie was loosely based off of a real CIA project that occured in the early 1970’s

Project Stargate was a CIA project with the support of the University of Stanford. Individuals with the ability of remote viewing were recruited and assigned the task of discovering foreign countries secret military facilities. While these sessions were being held, not only were key locations of other countries bases revealed but the remote viewers were also able to locate four additional bases that were being operated by extraterrestrials. The four locations named were Monte Perdido in the Spanish Pyrenees, Mount Nyangani in Zimbabwe, Mount Zeil in Australia, and Mount Hayes in Alaska.

Half human and half fish or half human and half bird folklore lives and breathes in religious texts, literature, film, and big fish tales shooting from the mouths of drunken sailors spreading their over embellished stories of their voyages of the seas. Folklore involving merfolk is embedded in cultures throughout the world, landlocked to coastal regions.

Era or Oannes

Babylonian deity Era aka Oannes is the Fish-god that is represented on seals and sculptures that date back to 5,000 BCE. This fish god was usually depicted to have a bearded head with a crown and a half upper half man with a scaly fish tale instead of legs. This is the first known depiction of a merman.

Atargatis

Atargatis is a Syrian origin goddess whose influence spread to Greece, Rome, and beyond. Atargatis is the first depiction of a mermaid. Over the hundreds of years of being worshiped she was referred to be the goddess of fertility, goddess of the earth and water, and the goddess of love. She is believed to be the direct inspiration to the Greek love goddess Aphrodite.

Folklore

The lore of merfolk can be greatly diverse from culture to culture. Some folklore portray the mermaids/mermen as benevolent beings who are responsible for prosperous harvests. The morning dew on plants was believed to be the results of mermaids or water sprites dancing on land under the moon lit nights. Other cultures perceive these merfolk to be malevolent beings that lure unsuspecting travelers with false promises of romance or luck that lead the victims to their watery deaths.

Rusalka…

a slavic myth of a ghost, water spirit, succubus or mermaid like demon that dwells at the bottom of the rivers, lakes, or wells. Rusalki (plural) are spirits of young women who died a tragic death anywhere near a body of water. In some versions, unbaptized babies who were drowned by their mothers were believed to be the creations of Rusalki. Rusalki were cursed to live in the form of a mermaid and reside in the waters to where they originally met their fate. They would sing enchanting melodies to entrap men, women, or children to their watery deaths. Rusalki can live on water or land and are commonly described to be pale or to have translucent skin, and to have no visible pupils. Some stories state that they have green fiery eyes with green or golden hair which is always wet. This variation with the wet hair description states that if the hair of the Rusalka drys, she will die. In some versions, the Rusalki had a positive effect on crops.

Sirens…

a Greek mythological creature described to be a half bird and half woman who lure sailors to their deaths with their beautiful melodic voices. Homer, the ancient Greek poet, mostly known for The Iliad and The Odyssey, claimed to have seen two sirens on an island in the western sea between Aeaea and the rocks of Scylla. In The Odyssey, the Greek Hero Odysseus wanted to hear the beautiful sounds of these creatures. Under advisement from a sorceress named Circe, the crew stuffed wax into their ears to silence out the temptresses. Odysseus had himself tied to the mast of the ship to prevent the temptation of the beautiful sounds that would lead to impending death.

A little History tidbit..

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed out from Spain to find a western trade route to Asia. Taken from his journal entries, On January 9, 1493, near the Dominican Republic, Columbus noted that he spotted three mermaids. Later, the conclusion was drawn that Columbus could have mistaken manatees for the creatures that he described in his journal entry.

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Through countless folklore, novels, or films from around the world, vampires have been a part of our culture since the dawn of civilization. The glamorous imagery of these blood sucking human creatures romancing our youth that drive them into gothic subcultures are entirely fictional characters that were created for pure entertainment. However, there are real people from the past and present who have been portrayed or claim to be real vampires that have been documented by historians, journalist, and scientists. Before I continue any further with this blog post, It is not my intention to convince you that immortal vampires that are portrayed in pop-culture exist. The intention is to shed light on the subject of Vampirism itself by separating the facts from the myths.

Vampires have been found in unearthed documents dating all the way back to the first known human civilization in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) known as the Sumerians roughly around 4000 B.C.E. There hasn’t been any documented evidence found stating that they encountered vampires, but the belief in vampires was very real in their religious texts. The Sumerians believed in two types of vampires, the immortal blood drinking vampires and psychic vampires. The psychic vampires were referred to as the ekimmu which were described as an evil dust of wind that would find a human victim and torment them until a priest or priestess arrived and banished the evil presence away. The Sumerians believed that this evil entity was created from a violent death or the body was not buried properly forcing the spirit to roam around earth looking for easy prey. The other race of vampires, the immortal blood drinking variety, that the Sumerians also feared were the Seven Demons. These creatures were known not only for drinking the blood from the veins of their victims but were also known to be afraid of the images of the gods of Sumer which were typically found in the Sumerian temples. Coincidentally, looking at the western modern day vampire folklore, you can see the similarities of modern day vampires not being able to enter a church or having the fear of a crucifix.

1,500 miles away and a few centuries later the Indus tribes of Northern India not only believed in vampires but were the first to believe in the concept of vampire gods. These vampire gods were ruthless demonic beings that were appeased by the people out of fear. Paintings and carvings were found in the Indus valley, that date back to this time period, of demonic looking creatures with green skin and fangs. As of now there hasn’t been any literature found from the same time period that describes these beliefs, however in the surrounding areas these beliefs developed and these vampiric gods were eventually given names. The Nepalese Lord of Death was the first known vampire god. This god had fangs and was depicted by holding a skull used as a cup filled with blood while standing over a pile of human skeletons. The Lord of Death was also a god believed by the Tibetans. Their version of the god was depicted as being a green demon with fangs and it lived off of the blood of humans.

A more modern vampire-like deity known as Kali was worshiped by the Thugee cult until wiped out by the British Empire in early 1800s. Kali battled a demon known as Raktavija. Every time Raktavija’s blood spilled onto the ground, more demons would appear. Kali, so the tale goes, drank Raktavija’s blood to defeat him. The Thugee cult were responsible for killing tens of thousands of people, draining their blood, and roasting the remains on spits to appease the goddess Kali. Kali is often depicted being covered in blood, having fangs, and sticking her tongue out presumably to lick up the blood sacrifices. Sometimes pictures of Kali would have her standing over human skeletons like her predecessors.

The ancient Egyptians are suspected of being the culprits of bringing the vampire creatures to this realm by summoning a demon from another realm. In Asia, they refer to vampires as Jiangshi, which are evil spirits that attack people and drain their life energy. The Tibetan Book of the Dead mentioned 58 deities that were described as wraith-like entities that roamed the land of the dead. It is believed that these spirits would posses a corpse, rise from the grave, and attack the living. An old Romanian legend claims that to find a vampire’s grave one needs a white horse and a 7-year- old boy. The boy needs to be wearing all white, placed on the horse and let the team go in midday in a graveyard. When the horse stops, the closest grave to the horse is the resting spot of a vampire.

A common theme in the undead vampire folklore, is the fear of the dead rising from the grave. Most folklore states that the best way of dispatching a vampire is to stake the vampire in the chest to pin the creature to the earth so it never comes back. According to other folklore many supernatural beings such as djinn (genies) and vampires fear iron. Some folklore state that the head needs to be chopped off of the creature. Placing garlic or a brick in the mouth of the suspected vampires to prevent them from biting was another way of dealing with vampires.

In time periods before modern knowledge of science, superstitions ran rampant in cultures and societies. Tragic events were usually blamed on some supernatural creature/entity and sometimes vampires were the chosen culprit. This belief was even brought over to the Americas when European immigrants stepped off the boats onto the land of their new home. Graves were found by children playing near a gravel mine in Griswold, Connecticut, in 1990. At first the police suspected that these graves were unknown victims of a local serial killer, Michael Ross, but later Nick Bellantoni, a Connecticut state archaeologist, confirmed that the unknown graves were colonial-era farm cemetery that was typical of the 1700s. The dead, many of them being children, were laid resting in the similar Yankee style, simple wood coffins with their arms resting by their sides or crossed over their chest except Burial Number 4. It was one of only two stone crypts in the cemetery. While archaeologists uncovered the large rock forming the roof of the crypt, they found remnants of a smashed coffin and a pile of a skeleton bones with the skull sitting on the top of the pile. After analyzing the remains of the skeleton, it was reported that the decapitation of the head, rib fractures, and the arrangement of the bones occurred 5 years after the individual was laid to rest. Other graves have been found in the United States and Europe with similar characteristics like a brick found in a skull’s mouth or a sickle wedged between the head and the spinal cord.

Historical Vampires

Vlad the Impaler ( Vlad Tepes 1431-1476) the most famous known vampire due to Bram Stoker’s Dracula set the standard image of the modern day interpretation of a vampire. Vlad earned his nickname Vlad the Impaler by striking fear and intimidation to his enemies by impaling captured enemy soldiers while alive. While enemy troops approached the scene of battle they would hear their captured comrades moaning in agony while dying a slow death. It was also claimed that Vlad was seen sitting at a table with a cup of the blood of the dying soldiers and dipping bread into the blood and eating it while smiling at his enemies approaching.

Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614) also known as the Bloody Countess was born into Protestant nobility in Hungary. Her family controlled Transylvania and an uncle was the king of Poland. In 1609, after her husband’s death, the Hungarian countess developed a reputation for being cruel and violent with her servants. Young women started to disappear from nearby villages and towns. Eventually it was discovered that Elizabeth developed a craving to bathe in young women’s blood believing that it was keeping her skin looking younger. Elizabeth’s servants were accused of aiding her blood thirst hobby and three of them were executed. And go figure, the wealthy countess was sentenced to house arrest, more like sent to her room, at the Castle Cachtice where she died.

Real Vampires

Not your typical goth teenagers romanticizing about being the sexy undead creatures of the night, yes I am talking about people who claim to be real mortal vampires. They believe that feeding off of other’s blood or other’s psychic energy keeps them healthy and strong. These are ordinary people who have ordinary jobs who prefer to be anonymous for the fear of prejudices from other human beings. This is understandable, people hating others because of the color of their skin, sexual identity/preference, or religious differences is a common social issue throughout the world. There are also other organisms that have vampire characteristics such as the vampire bat, mosquitoes, leeches, and spiders.

Now that I covered real life examples of the first two definitions of vampirism let’s look at the third definition, the act of preying upon or exploiting others. Crooked politicians, con artists, sex offenders, and TV evangelists come to my mind first when I think of vampirism.